24 comments:

Some days it's very hard to make a joke. Here, for example, is such a collision of fuckery that I want to find this person and hold their hand and tell them it's going to be okay. Or, yeah, what Piers said, murder him outright.

yeah, because people not into comics know who GL is. With the movie coming out and the trailer on during every commercial break, people still ask me what the symbol on my GL shirt is. When I say Green Lantern, they then have to ask who/what that is.

Yeah, every badass you can imagine is totally into comics. I know the guy who runs the comic book store near Ft. Bragg. He messed up the subs for the Delta Force guys and...let's just say those dudes are serious about their Archie titles.

There are enough guys like this (delusions of 'coolness/being underground') to merit their own category now. What is with that? I mean, I know a lot of comic fans are not good at picking up on social cues, but this is truly a step above.

I don't even tell close friends I buy/read some superhero comics. At most i'll tell them I read Acme Novelty Library (which I do) and other indie stuff, but for the most part I treat it like a shameful drug habit. Which, in a way, it is.

@Anonymous- I think part of it is due to the fact that there has been a cool nerd serge. So it might be an underground culture but it's become much more pervasive in recent years (walking dead on TV, GL movie) and it has become much more socially acceptable to be reading comics in general.

But there's also the "THIS IS MY THING, NOT YOUR THING". Even if it's not a cool sub-culture it's something that defines this person and to have people say that they're really into it when they've only accidentally watched some Smallville can be annoying if you've endured being an outcast due to devotion.

once hollywood totally kills the superhero movie genre and the comic BOOK industry falls into financial decline and or bankruptcy due to digital book downloads and piracy then all you nerds can have your "precious" back.

I see this attitude among video game fandom too: the idea that new blood is going to "run" the fandom because they allegedly only like it because it's popular, and don't REALLY appreciate it like the early adopters do.

Fuck that ivory tower shit. I LIKE seeing more people get interested in things I enjoy. Have you considered the possibility that they'll like it for the same reasons you like it? And if you can't enjoy it the same way just because it's popular, maybe YOU'RE the one who needs to stop judging things by how popular they are.

I am definitely cool with more people getting into the things that I'm into. In fact, I'm excited that I can talk about these things and receive a little more understanding than I used to. At the same time, I can understand the frustration that sets in when the trappings of a culture become widespread.

You see someone with a Superman shirt, that doesn't mean a whole lot, right? It's a widespread, well-known thing. You see someone with a Green Lantern shirt, that's just a touch more off the beaten path. You identify this person immediately as someone with a common interest, one that probably runs about as deep as yours, and whether you're correct or not, you imagine that you have found a compatriot.

With Green Lantern, Thor, Iron Man, and other less-popular (read: Not Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man) characters getting flicks, people feel less certain about who they can truly commune with culturally, and who's just kind of along for the ride.

Ultimately, though, I have to wave my B.S. flag on that. There's no reason to get upset when more people hop on. When the trappings of the hippie culture were bought and sold in the mainstream market, their sense of loss was understandable - something pure and idealistic (at least, in their minds) was suddenly about selling posters and t-shirts. Conversely, our subculture has ALWAYS been about selling posters and t-shirts.

There's a ton of beautiful artistic expression out there, but consider: the hippies, the punks, and other counter-culture movements that were co-opted by the mainstream had this angst over their youth-in-revolt ideals being swallowed up by the materialist machine. Whether they were right or not, they had this sense that all of their esoterica, these symbols and totems that held deep importance to them, were being stripped of value and sold to people who couldn't care less, all to fuel the materialist machine they struggled against. Conversely, our culture is inherently materialistic. We shell out for sequels, and "Collector's Editions," and maquettes, whatever the hell those are. There's nothing to sell out, because our culture, much as I love it, is built around buying and selling. It may mean more than that to us, but it's not like we're some cultural revolution that's being undermined.

So what are we? That's harder to nail down. For my part, I'm someone who is eager to see the superb in the midst of the mundane. I'm someone who sees the rejuvenating power of the action stories comics draw so heavily from. I'm a person who has realized that my childhood toys kick ass and refuses to get rid of them.

And on that note, I personally welcome anyone to my sandbox who wants to check it out. We've totally got the Technodrome over here; it's awesome. And if you don't know what the Technodrome is, or why it's awesome, I'm happy to SHARE that with you - not resent you, not make you feel like an idiot, or an ass for not knowing - I will share these things with you because they are fun, dammit. And they are worth sharing.

I normally welcome new fans too, because we all had to start somewhere. But I have had a few... somewhat embarrassing encounters with new fans.

I recently attended A-Kon, and was on the lookout for Touhou Project cosplayers (Touhou is a series of PC games I've been a fan of for about three years). I spot a cosplayer for Flandre, a vampire girl, and initiate the following conversation.

Me: "Hey, I'm glad to see some Touhou fans represent! You're the first cosplayer I've seen today."

That was, by far, the most rational and well thought out response I have ever seen in the comments section here. I would like very much to be your friend, not because you have a Technodrome (I never had one, but we can put my Sewer Lair on the other side of the sandbox), but because you are a decent human being. That's refreshing these days.

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